takeout, faked

Who among us doesn't love takeout? The ease of eating in your pajamas if you're so inclined, the deliciousness of your favorite food...but my main reason for loving takeout, at the moment, is that I don't have to make it. I do love to cook, but having four small kids and a husband to cook for, day after day after day after day after day is truly like running your own (very small) restaurant. I make all 95% of my food from scratch: no Hamburger Helper, no mac and cheese (well, once a week or less for lunch for the kids; that's where the 95% comes in), you get the idea. We're not big on processed foods around here. I like to say, "I make all my own junk food, so at least I know what's in it". And most meals have to be doable in 30, 45 minutes max, because the time between "mom, I'm hungry" and complete snot-running-down-your-shirt meltdown is about 7 minutes. 

But back to the issue at hand. We are big fans of Whole Foods takeout. I'm not claiming that much of their takeout is even that great; their cheese enchiladas are fairly bland and their salad dressings are barely edible. But the variety is there to please all the interested parties, and most of it is pretty good. The one dish that everyone likes is the Asian Noodle Salad. Simple flavors, all four of my kids like it, and that is what you call a small miracle, madam. The one problem is that it is very expensive (Whole Foods, duh), especially considering it's 'just noodles'. So I read the list of ingredients and made my own, much cheaper and less oily, version. We like to eat it with veggie/tofu stir fry or any other Asian thing I happen to be cooking up. I'm kind of a 'little of this, a pinch of that' kind of cook, so feel free to add more or less of everything to your taste. I certainly do.

Asian Noodle Salad

-1 pkg spaghetti (we use soba or other more 'Asian' types of noodles on occasion, but spaghetti is what everyone likes best)

-sesame oil to taste (I probably use a tablespoon, maybe 2. My rule of thumb: dump it in 'til it looks good)

-soy sauce to taste

-1-2 cups of carrots, shredded or cut very finely

-fresh grated ginger (I use maybe a teaspoon, but my kids are wimps in the spice department. A little goes a long way)

-1/4 cup sesame seeds

Occasionally I add cilantro, chopped finely, and anything else I have on hand that sounds good. I do believe the WF version has chopped green onions, but I'm the only one who cares for those around here, so I leave them out. I have also used Hoisin sauce in this, too...delish. I just watered it down a bit and whisked it before adding it to the noodles.

Directions:

Cook the noodles. Drain and rinse. You'll need a big bowl. Add the other stuff. Mix.

Once the water boils, the take-it-to-the-table time is about 10 minutes. Happiness!

...and once again, my friend Eilyne over at Suite 100 is doing a Food Friday entry...all about cake pops! You can find it  here:   http://www.eilynedavis.com/2011/03/food-friday-two-can-play-at-that-game.html

 

 

as it turns out, i'm a chicken

A few days ago, my three youngest kids and I were in the grocery store and #2 picked up a brochure at the Jelly Belly display. One of the pages was about a line of beans called 'Bean Boozled'. Here's the idea: there are two sets of look alike beans. One set is the 'tastes good' version and the other set is its evil twin that is disgusting. Since they look identical, the game is to try to suss out which ones taste good...and which ones to avoid. The current edition of beans has such delicious flavors such as baby wipes, boogers, barf and skunk spray. Their respective twins would be coconut, pear, peach, and licorice. 

 Aw heck, we just HAD to try these! So I got online and luckily the Jelly Belly company has a search engine on their website so that you can narrow your search to just stores that carry this one particular type of bean. You can find that search engine here. We found them at a Safeway store not normally in our sphere of shopping, but not too far. And off we went this morning.

After we picked my oldest up from school and ate lunch, we all went outside to give these babies a try (I wanted them to spit them in the bushes, not on the floor in the house). Each kid had their own box and I highly suspected that my two littlest had no idea what was going on, as you can see here:

  
I felt sorry for #4 (above), so I took her box of Bean Boozleds and replaced it with a couple of good-tasting jelly bellies (I bought a bag of those, too, for movie night tonight). #3 Gave up on them after a bad bean or two...and #2 was pretty quiet during the whole thing. 

The most entertaining kid to watch was my oldest, who yelled, spat, squinched up her face, and even had a couple episodes of dry heaving (those moldy cheese jelly bellies are a real killer, apparently). 

I was up for the challenge, in theory, but when it came down to it, I just wasn't very adventurous. I'm happy with my margarita and pear flavored beans.

  

And that's how I found out I'm a chicken.

 I'm no Betty Crocker, but...

Several years ago, a reproduction edition of the original 1950 Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book was released, and boy, I was all over that. I love the mid century stuff, including cook books, apparently. And it wasn't cheap. This cook book is a little lot dated, using enough butter, cream, white flour and sugar to make Paula Deen do a double take. It's also full of recipes for beef this, pork that, and even liver whadyaknow, which is pretty useless for us because we are a family of vegetarians. But I'll tell you what this cookbook is full of: history. Recipes for buckles and canned preserves and all kinds of stuff that only grandma made. And I love that.

....And that, my friends, is how I fell in love with the coffee cake. There's a whole page of variations on the coffee cake (including one with candied fruit...how's that for dated?!?!): orange coffee cake, blueberry buckle, pineapple...and so I got to experimenting. I'm one of those 'a pinch of this, a little of that' kind of cooks...not really big on the recipes much. I change them around, substitute like crazy, and alter them beyond recognition so the chances are greater that people will actually eat the food. And this is the thing I love about The Betty Crocker: 'she' always uses a 'Key Recipe', and you're free to go on your merry way adding and subtracting ingredients to your heart's content.

So here's my version of the Betty Crocker Prize Coffee Cake, altered a bit to make it more healthy, but still totally 50's delish.

Mix together:

1 1/2 c.sugar, type of your choosing (can also use part maple syrup, yum)

1/4 c. applesauce

1/4 c. butter or margarine

2 eggs

Stir in:

1 c. milk (soy, dairy, rice, whatever)

Sift together and stir in:

3 c. whole wheat pastry flour (if I've run out, I also do 1/2 white, 1/2 whole wheat in a pinch)

4 tsp. baking powder

Oven: 375 degrees, bake in a greased 9X13 pan for 20-30 minutes (sorry, I'm a keep-an-eye and nose-on-it baker, I rarely pay attention to time. See what works in your oven).

My favorite alterations:

Cinnamon Coffee Cake: Mix 1 c. brown sugar and 3 tsps cinnamon. Put half the batter in the pan, spread, and sprinkle half the cinnamon mixture on the top. Then spread the rest of the batter and the rest of the cinnamon mixture on top of that. You get a delicious layer of cinnamon brown sugar in the middle that my kids call 'just like Starbucks, but way better').

Blueberry Coffee Cake: I do the same technique as above...spread in half the batter, then sprinkle about 2 cups blueberries (if you use frozen, defrost them in a bowl of warm water first)...and the rest of the batter goes on top. You can also just stir the blueberries in. Same baking time, etc.

Apple Coffee Cake: Same halfsies technique as above, but I thinly slice peeled apples and lay them in a layer in the middle of the two layers of batter. I would say I use a cup and a half or two cups of sliced apples- this depends on how appley you want your coffee cake.

My fantasy is to try layering in a jar of raspberry preserves...but I haven't done it, yet. If you decide to, please come back and leave a comment letting me know how it came out!

Also, if you're interested in The Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, here she is.

..and this one's ring-bound. Awesome. Mine's not, and falling apart....

My friend Eilyne is hosting 'Food Fridays', which this post is a part of. She also has a retro theme going this week, with her Aunt Hilma's recipe for corn bread pudding. So hop on over there and check it out! You can find Eilyne here .